Cooking & Eating & Living in Paris (& Leaving it, sometimes)

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Parfait, in French, means perfect

In France, the last four weeks before the annual summer break are filled with social events of all kinds. Concerts, fêtes, farewell parties for teachers stuff the agenda like a Christmas goose – and the poor parents are in charge of food and wine and amusements.

It’s a good time to take it easy – and prepare a Parfait de foies de volaille that will bring about the “Ah’s” and “Oh’s” of your peers and plenty of demands for the recipe. What is a parfait? Well, it’s a paté, a rich and tasty spread based on liver and butter, basically. All you need, in fact, is a food blender. Well, almost.

You’ll need as well (for 2 bowls of 500g each): 600g of chicken livers, 300g of exquisite salted butter (what the French call “demi-sel”, don’t try this with American or, even worse, Italian “butter”), a couple of shallots, five juniper berries, a shot of rum and, for the fancy finish, some aspic made of white porto.

How to do it: Melt the minced shallots in some olive oil, add the (cleaned) chicken livers and let take colour. Add the juniper and crush with a fork. Flambé with the rum (step back – it makes quite a darting flame!). Stir until the fire goes off, then take what you have in the pan, let cool for a while, then combine it with the butter (cut very coarsely into pieces) and mix it in your blender until you obtain a fine puree (it will become firm once fully chilled). Fill into serving bowls and let cool, first outside, then in the fridge. Decorate (as seen below or otherwise) and glaze with a jelly made of white porto. Impress your fellow school parents…